WAIC After Hours: An AI Gathering Planned for 100 That Drew 300+

On the evening of July 17, the opening day of this year's WAIC, Source Code Capital teamed up with MaHui member company TTC, along with ecosystem partners Amazon Web Services and Silicon Star, to throw a WAIC After Hours event — "Tonight's API." It was a laid-back drinks gathering with no drawn-out panels and no all-night PowerPoints. The only "formal segment" was a two-minute flash introduction, and Source Code Capital investor Yijie Wang was also on hand to share the firm's investment direction and positioning in AI.

The gathering, originally planned for around 100 people, ended up drawing over 300. The scheduled 10 p.m. wrap time came and went, and at 11:30 p.m. there were still more than 50 people who couldn't bring themselves to leave. The crowd included AI founders across sectors, Big Tech executives, investors, upstream and downstream service providers, ecosystem communities, grad students and PhDs, foreign company executives, and media reporters — plus, of course, Source Code Capital's portfolio companies in AI: Booster Robotics, Independent Variable Robotics, Lynksoul, Whale, Xiaozhi Technology, and others. Behind it all was a dense weaving together of the MaHui ecosystem.

People sat together talking partnerships, business, trends, and connections. That night alone, real deals got made: a data platform company signed a partner, an LP connected with a company they wanted to back, a CEO recruited their target hire — and many more connections and business collaborations kept unfolding in the days that followed.

Bring the right people together, let real connections happen naturally, let collaboration find its focus. This was our first try. Same time at WAIC next year.